Fullstory today released its 2026 Travel & Hospitality Survey, drawing on responses from more than 1,000 U.S. consumers, and the data reveals a travel market shaped by cost pressure rather than diminished demand - with 70% of respondents having traveled in the past year or planning to do so in 2026.

The survey, published on June 4, 2026, was conducted in May 2026 by a third-party research provider. According to Fullstory, the findings cover shifting travel behaviors, booking preferences, and digital experience expectations across demographic segments. What emerges is a picture of consumers who have not stopped traveling but have become considerably more deliberate about when, where, and how they spend.

Demand holds, but decisions are harder

Seven in ten survey respondents - 70% - reported traveling in the past year or planning to travel in 2026. That figure represents sustained engagement with the travel category despite a difficult economic environment. But the same data show that sustained demand is not the same as frictionless demand.

According to Fullstory, 33% of respondents are cutting back on budgets or shortening trips in response to rising costs. A further 20% are choosing alternative travel options - driving rather than flying, for instance - as a way of managing fares. The generational split is notable. Consumers over 45 are the least likely to adjust plans, with 25% of Baby Boomers and 18% of Gen X reporting no changes to their travel behavior. Among younger cohorts, the adjustments are more common: only 14% of Millennials and 8% of Gen Z said they had made no changes.

"As costs rise and budgets tighten, consumers are still planning to travel, but they are making more deliberate decisions about when, how, and where they spend," said Jason Wolf, president of Fullstory. "More intentional demand means that success will be defined less by volume and more by precision. The travel brands that can deliver the right experience at the right moment - while removing friction and building trust - will be best positioned to win market share and customer loyalty."

The shift toward deliberate planning is showing up in booking timing. According to Fullstory, 31% of respondents are now booking earlier specifically to avoid price increases. That is a meaningful behavioral change for an industry that has historically seen significant last-minute booking activity. Locking in prices ahead of fare volatility has become a practical strategy for a significant share of the U.S. consumer base.

Hidden fees remain the dominant pain point

Cost friction does not end at the booking stage. According to Fullstory, 61% of respondents cited hidden or unexpected fees as their top frustration when booking travel. That figure is the single largest pain point in the survey and carries implications for how travel brands structure their pricing presentation.

The hidden fee problem is not new - regulatory scrutiny of drip pricing in hospitality has been ongoing for several years - but the Fullstory data quantifies just how central the issue remains to the booking experience in 2026. Nearly two-thirds of U.S. travelers put fee transparency at the top of their frustration list, ahead of delayed or unhelpful customer service, which ranked second at 37%, and limited availability or inventory issues, which came in at 34%.

Booking abandonment is a direct consequence. According to Fullstory, 31% of consumers abandon bookings specifically because of last-stage price changes - a scenario in which a traveler progresses through a booking flow only to encounter a higher price at the final step. An additional 24% leave to compare options and do not return. Together, those two figures represent a substantial proportion of initiated bookings that never convert. For digital advertising teams, this pattern raises questions about the cost of acquiring a visitor who abandons at the final stage because the price shown in the ad or search result does not match the price at checkout.

Search engines hold, but AI enters the funnel

The survey maps how U.S. travelers are initiating their planning. According to Fullstory, traditional digital channels dominate: search engines were cited by 53% of respondents, online travel agencies by 51%, and direct airline or hotel websites by 44%.

Against that backdrop, 15% of respondents reported using AI tools such as ChatGPT or Claude in the early stages of trip planning. That is a relatively modest share overall, but the breakdown by age is instructive. According to Fullstory, Gen X leads at 19%, followed by Millennials at 17%, Gen Z at 15%, and Baby Boomers at 4%. The Gen X figure is particularly worth noting - it is higher than the Gen Z figure, which challenges assumptions about which demographic cohort is driving early AI adoption in travel research.

The Fullstory finding adds a consumer-side data point to a broader pattern of behavioral change that PPC Land has been tracking. Research published in May 2026 on AI travel planning behavior found that 54% of Americans are now comfortable using AI to plan a vacation from start to finish, based on a HUMAN Security survey of more than 2,400 respondents. A separate eDreams survey published June 2, 2026 found strong demand signals among high-intent sports travelers, with Expedia and Magnite linking 200 petabytes of traveler intent data to programmatic channels in April 2026.

The Fullstory data does not capture whether AI-initiated research translates into completed bookings, only that AI is present at the top of the funnel for one in seven U.S. travelers. That share is likely to grow. Google expanded AI travel planning capabilities across more than 200 countries in November 2025, enabling conversational itinerary building, flight searches, and agentic restaurant and event booking. The platform later merged hotel, flight, and car rental ad formats into standard Search campaigns via AI Max on April 30, 2026, putting travel advertisers on the same automated infrastructure as mainstream search advertisers. Both changes structurally alter where and how travel brands need to show up to reach consumers early in the planning journey.

The 15% AI adoption figure in early-stage planning, while currently lower than search engine usage, represents a distinct funnel entry point that sits outside the traditional paid search model. Consumers using an AI assistant to explore destination options are not necessarily issuing a query to a search engine, which means conventional keyword-based advertising may not intercept that activity.

Price is the dominant driver - but experience follows close behind

When respondents were asked about the factors most influencing their travel decisions, price and value ranked first at 77%. That margin is substantial. Customer service quality came second at 51%, followed by convenience of booking at 48%. The ordering is consistent with the rest of the survey data - cost sensitivity is operating at a different level of intensity than other factors.

According to Fullstory, personalization matters most when it translates into savings. More than half of respondents - 55% - said personalized pricing, discounts, or bundled offers would be the most impactful way to improve their travel experience. Destination recommendations were cited by 41%, and content-based suggestions by 26%. The data suggest that abstract or inspiration-led personalization resonates less than personalization that directly reduces cost or simplifies a decision.

On direct booking incentives, 44% of respondents said lower or price-matched pricing would motivate them to book directly with airlines or hotels rather than through an intermediary. Faster booking experiences were cited by 19%, as were loyalty perks or exclusive offers, also at 19%. The price-matching figure is notable because it implies that for a large proportion of travelers, the decision to book through an OTA rather than directly is primarily a pricing arbitrage calculation.

Nearly 70% of respondents said they would likely switch travel brands after a negative experience. According to Fullstory, the threshold for brand switching is low relative to the investment most travel companies make in customer acquisition.

Digital tools at the point of travel

The survey also captured preferences for digital features during the travel experience itself - a category distinct from booking tools. According to Fullstory, mobile boarding passes and check-in functions were cited by 63% of respondents as the most important digital tools throughout their travel experience. Real-time alerts and notifications ranked second at 56%, and centralized itinerary management at 49%.

These preferences point to operational convenience rather than discovery or inspiration at this stage of the journey. The respondents who want real-time alerts are managing logistics, not browsing options. For marketers who separate their acquisition budgets from their retention and engagement investments, the data suggest that post-booking digital experiences carry significant weight - nearly half of respondents value itinerary management highly enough to cite it explicitly.

What the Fullstory data means for marketing professionals

The survey methodology covers more than 1,000 U.S. consumers, which limits the precision of demographic-level breakdowns. Nevertheless, as a signal of directional movement in travel consumer behavior, the findings carry weight for marketing and advertising professionals.

The 31% booking-abandonment rate at the point of last-stage price changes is directly relevant to conversion rateanalysis for any travel advertiser running paid search or programmatic campaigns. An ad click that initiates a booking flow but terminates at checkout due to fee disclosure is wasted acquisition spend. The Fullstory data frames this not as an edge case but as a behavior affecting nearly one in three initiated bookings.

The 15% AI planning share matters because it is growing from a near-zero base. Data from the Datos Q1 2026 state of search report, published April 27, 2026, showed AI tool share of desktop search events rising from 1.31% in Q1 2025 to 1.65% in Q1 2026 - a smaller market-wide figure that underscores the gap between consumer willingness to use AI tools and actual observed behavior in aggregate traffic. The travel sector, which involves complex, high-consideration decisions, may be a category where AI adoption in planning is running ahead of the broader average.

The 61% hidden fees figure is a persistent structural issue. It has not emerged in 2026 as a new complaint - it reflects years of pricing practice in hospitality and aviation that has consistently frustrated consumers. What is new in the Fullstory survey is its scale relative to every other friction point. No other issue the survey measured came within 24 percentage points of hidden fees as a top frustration.

For the advertising technology sector, the survey adds consumer behavioral context to the infrastructure changes underway in travel advertising. Google's new AI search ad formats, announced at Google Marketing Live on May 20, 2026, include travel partner integrations with Booking and Expedia within AI Mode. Those integrations exist precisely because the industry anticipates that AI-assisted planning will increase in volume. The Fullstory survey's 15% current adoption rate, with gen-specific breakdowns showing Gen X at 19%, gives advertisers a consumer-side anchor for that infrastructure investment.

The gap between what consumers want from personalization - savings and simplicity - and what many digital experiences currently offer - content recommendations and destination inspiration - is significant. According to Fullstory, the most impactful improvement to the travel experience is one that saves money directly, not one that surfaces ideas. That hierarchy should inform where travel brands prioritize their investment in data and targeting capabilities.

Timeline

Summary

Who: Fullstory, a behavioral data company headquartered in Atlanta with clients in the hospitality and travel sector including Travel + Leisure Co., conducted and today released its 2026 Travel & Hospitality Survey. The respondents are more than 1,000 U.S. consumers surveyed by a third-party research provider in May 2026.

What: A consumer survey measuring travel planning behavior, booking frustrations, pricing sensitivity, AI tool adoption, and digital experience preferences among U.S. travelers. Key findings: 70% traveled or plan to in 2026; 61% cite hidden fees as their top frustration; 33% are cutting budgets or shortening trips; 31% book earlier to avoid price increases; 31% abandon bookings due to last-stage price changes; and 15% use AI tools such as ChatGPT or Claude in early-stage planning.

When: The survey was conducted in May 2026. Results were released on June 4, 2026.

Where: The survey covered U.S. consumers. Fullstory is headquartered in Atlanta, Georgia, and operates across North America, EMEA, and APAC.

Why: The findings matter because they quantify consumer behaviors that directly affect marketing and advertising performance in the travel sector - specifically the scale of booking abandonment due to pricing friction, the demographic spread of AI tool adoption at the top of the planning funnel, and the primacy of price-based personalization over content-based recommendations. For digital marketers running paid search, programmatic, or direct-booking acquisition campaigns, the data provide a consumer-side perspective on where friction is highest and what kinds of value propositions are most likely to close the gap.